


on pause

by starryeyedauthor



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Angst, Established Relationship, F/M, Fighting, Fluff, Friendship, Love, Romance, angsty, argument, serpents, southside serpents
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-27
Updated: 2018-05-27
Packaged: 2019-05-14 12:48:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,054
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14769936
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starryeyedauthor/pseuds/starryeyedauthor
Summary: In which Fangs and the reader are exhausted and frustrated, and they come to realize that yelling when you're sleeping deprived isn’t really communicating.





	on pause

You exhaled in anger, staring at all the books on the floor, carefully written notes spread across the space. 

 

“You promised,” You finally sighed, lifting your hands to pull your hair out of it’s messy bun, running your hands through the tangles and pacing the small living room. “Fangs you fucking  _ promised  _ me.” 

 

“I know, Y/N,” He repeated, words tinged with frustration. “Look I have to do this for the serpents, FP’s still locked up. We can’t just let everything fall apart while he’s gone. The ghoulies think we’re weak now, and we have to show them how fucking wrong they are.” 

 

“By storming into their territory in the middle of the night?” You blurted out loudly, glowering at him in annoyance. 

 

“Finals start tomorrow, Fangs. And you have to get a 75 to pass English. You promised me you were going to try harder and you’ve cancelled on every fucking study session.” 

 

His jaw clenched as he grabbed a random duffel bag from behind the couch, tossing it over his shoulder and ignoring the words that were spilling out of your mouth. 

 

“Fangs, don’t you dare walk out of this trailer. I can’t keep doing this,” You shouted, the pitch of your voice growing shrill as your volume grew, the look on his face only making you feel worse inside. 

 

“What do you want me to do?!” He thundered, his voice bouncing off the walls of the trailer. “I don’t have a fucking choice, Y/N. I have to do this.” 

 

You shook your head angrily, continuing to pace through the living room and glaring at him when he took a few steps closer to you. He lowered his voice, the angry look in his eyes softening into something touched with concern. 

 

“Please just stay here tonight. Don’t try to walk home in the dark, just crash here and I’ll be back early enough to drive us both to school. I promise, Y/N.” 

 

You scoffed quietly, blinking back tears of exasperation as you lowered your voice into something worse than anger, something utterly defeated. “You need to stop making promises you can’t keep Fangs.” 

 

His eyes grew darker and he stared at the floor for a moment before swallowing, raising his head to meet lock his gaze with yours. “I love you, Y/N. Don’t forget to lock the doors.” 

 

With that, he strode out of the trailer and a few moments later you heard the roar of his motorcycle for a few moments, eventually fading to a dull rumble as he pulled out of the trailer park. 

 

You stood in the empty trailer, letting the angry tears spill over your cheeks before you wiped them away harshly. Glancing around, you took it all in. The couch Fangs had kissed you on for the first time. The kitchen you danced around in the mornings, making pancakes and singing in terribly loud voices, the way Fangs would spin you around. 

 

You took a few steps towards the bedroom and sighed shakily, the ache in your chest growing. The first time you had slept in Fangs’ bed with him you had been so nervous, but as soon as he had tentatively taken hold of your hand, everything felt so damn right. You remembered waking up with a smile, Fangs wrapped around you like he was afraid to lose you even in his sleep. 

 

Now, it was something completely different. The bed you slept in alone, always waiting for him to come home at odd hours. Worrying about him and the rest of your friends, texting everyone periodically in hopes of them letting you know they were safe. 

 

Sometimes you would wake up and Fangs would be right there, curled up right next to you, still in his clothes from the previous night. Your eyes would scan over his form, searching for injuries before you carefully lowered yourself into his chest, breathing in his scent with trembling hands, somehow full of adoration, sadness, and everything trapped in between. Something that made you feel like your heart was always caving in. Like you were stuck on the drop of a rollercoaster, unable to get off.  

 

No matter what you did, you couldn’t get away from that consuming feeling, guilt and panic and worry all in one. 

 

You ran your fingers over one of his shirts, catching the smell of cigarettes and oil, the smell making you close your eyes for a moment before you dropped the shirt. 

 

_ Fuck it _ , you thought to yourself, heading back to the living room and gathering up all of your belongings. You couldn’t do this. Not anymore. 

 

* * *

The next day at school, you looked like hell. You had creeped back into your own house after walking in the dark for thirty minutes. Despite your best efforts, sleep didn’t come, worry over everything and anything keeping you wide awake- everyone’s safety, your relationship, Fangs coming home to an empty trailer. You tried to push the thoughts down, but to no avail. It felt like your eyes had just closed when the sun came up, the brightness coming in from your windows waking you up immediately.

 

You had groaned in annoyance before stumbling out of bed, muttering angrily about Fangs and Sweet Pea’s forgotten promise to help you set up light blocking curtains. 

 

Now, you were at school, already having filled out your first final, standing at your locker and chugging down the enormous coffee you had brought from home. 

 

“Hey!” You heard a familiar voice call, your annoyance returning as Sweet Pea approached you, eyes narrowed and a new bruise coloring his face. 

 

“Y/N, where the fuck were you last night? Fangs called me freaking out cause you weren’t at the trailer. He’s been looking for you all morning,” He bit out, crossing his arms and staring you down, eyes searching you for some sort of injury.

 

“Fuck off, Sweet Pea,” You grumbled, your attitude and the purple bags under your eyes making him raise an eyebrow.

 

He raised his hands in the air innocently, taking a step back. “Jesus, don’t shoot the messenger. I’m just letting you know. Kind of fucked up, don’t you think? Just ghosting him in the middle of the night.” 

 

A humorless laugh escaped your lips, loud and sharp, the sound making Sweet Pea flinch. “Funny since that’s what Fangs does to me practically every other day.” 

 

You slammed your locker shut, turning around and gripping onto the coffee into your hand as you glowered at the boy in front of you. “Since you want to be part of this relationship so badly, you can go ahead and tell Fangs I’m just fine.” 

 

With that you stomped off, headed to your next final filled with indignation, wondering just how you had turned into this person.

 

-

 

Fangs found you when you were walking out of the school, and much to your annoyance your first reaction was carefully looking at him to see if he was injured in any way, relief filling you when you didn’t find any immediate wounds or bruises. 

 

“Y/N-” He started, sounding absolutely wrecked as he looked at you with eyes tinged red, still wearing the same clothes from last night and looking like he didn’t get any sleep. 

 

You interrupted him, shaking your head and blinking back a sudden wave of emotion. You weren’t expecting this sudden urge to cry, and in that moment you realized how hard it was, trying to pretend you weren’t worried, trying to be someone who didn’t care. 

 

You both stared at each other, standing there in the parking lot with shattered expressions. You sighed heavily and gave into the urge that was making your hands shake, stepping forward and pushing yourself into his arms, burrowing your face into the crook of his neck. 

 

His arms wrapped around your waist immediately and you sank into him, feeling him lowering his face into your hair and breathe you in, relief filling both of you. 

 

“Let’s just put this on pause, okay?” You murmured shakily. “Let’s put this fight on pause and go get some sleep and…” 

 

“And we’ll talk about it when we wake up,” He finished, nodding at you in agreement as you both reluctantly pulled away, both eager to get away from the school. 

 

* * *

When you woke up, for a moment you had forgotten about all of the chaos. You were relieved to be surrounded by the warmth of your boyfriend, his arm wrapped tightly against your waist, your face tucked away in his shoulder and his leaning against the top of your head. 

 

You brushed your fingers against the skin on his chest, sighing sleepily as you stretched wherever you could. 

 

Fangs stirred as well, clearing his throat and tightening his hold around you, as if he was making sure you were still there.

 

“Hey sweet girl,” He murmured quietly, stroking your hair gently. 

 

You groaned, burrowing into him further and closing your eyes shut tightly, not wanting to revert back into the other versions of yourselves, the versions that yelled and broke each other down. 

 

“I know,” He said quietly, already knowing exactly what you were thinking. “Listen…” He murmured quietly, trying to get you to sit up and meet his gaze. 

 

You did so with a frown, slowly sitting up and bringing the blanket to your chest, needing something to do with your hands as he spoke, the nerves returning to your stomach.

 

“I don’t want to lose you.” 

 

The words spilled out of his mouth quickly and he looked pained, leaning forward to tug one of your hands into his, uncurling your tight grip around the blanket. 

 

Your heart swelled with emotion and you blinked back tears, quickly letting go of the blanket and trying to rub them away. 

 

“Hey baby, don’t cry,” He murmured softly, leaning closer and cupping your face, stroking your cheek with his thumb. 

 

You shook your head, not trusting your voice not to break and staying quiet for a few moments. 

 

“I need you to hear this, okay? When Joaquin had to leave…” Fangs sighed heavily at the thought of his friend, shaking his head as guilt ran through him. “That could have been any of us in that position. Someone needed to step up and take care of everything he had to leave behind, tie up all the loose ends. I just wanted to do right by my friend, Y/N. I know it was stupid…” 

 

“Are you kidding me,” You murmured, realization dawning over you as you shook your head. “Fangs, I wish you would’ve just told me that. I would’ve understood babe.” 

 

“I know,” He exhaled softly, rubbing a hand over his face. Even now, in the midst of such an important talk, your eyes ran over him. His shirtless chest, the prominent muscles and the way his hand looked, intertwined with yours. 

 

Your heart ached differently this time, with love and regret, all the nights the two of you had spent fighting running through your head. 

 

“I just felt like I needed to do this, you know? But I know FP would kick my ass if he knew I was letting my grades slip for a few jobs.” 

 

You nodded empathetically, bringing your free hand and running it over his arm soothingly, the need to be there for him stronger than ever.  

 

“But I’m done now, I’m back to normal, I promise you. I’m sorry I hurt you. Fuck, sweet girl. I’m so sorry I didn’t realize how stupid I was being until now.” 

 

You leaned forward and brought your lips to his, smiling into this kiss when his hand wrapped around your neck, gently holding you in place.

 

“Don’t apologize, Fangs. I’m sorry I didn’t try to talk to you about it properly. We’re not letting this happen again, okay?”

 

He nodded in agreement, leaning his forehead against yours. “I love you, Y/N.” 

 

You hummed happily, peppering his cheek with kisses and scrunching your nose up at the feel of his stubble. That feeling was finally gone, the heavy weight of worry and anticipation. You felt like the sun was rising after months of being in the dark, everything full of warmth and light again. 

 

“I love you too,” You murmured, feeling it all over when he kissed you again. 


End file.
